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Sunday, July 8, 2012

Don't Panic

The site of the exhibition of Don’t
Panic (at the Centre for Historical Reenactments), curated by Gaby Ngcobo is a
elegant example of the fluidity between thinking of universalism, (the
experience of climate change) and particularities and identities of the African
vantage point, as well as the viewpoints of a variety of generations of
artists. Ngcobo gives us an arena to view these varying images and points of
view and we are left to our own minds to make sense of it. This is how art
creates a space that is flexible, in which intellectuals and mainstream viewers
can debate the efficacy of visual and audio strategies. There are some artists
that create direct human and formal responses to the idea of nature, such as
the sun, of Sean Slemons drawings on the wall and floor demarking the pathway
of the sun as it moves in reaction to the human made architecture of the building
and window. Slemons reminds us that we can create gestures in concert with our
world without interrupting its processes. The pathway is made as a large
drawing that increases its density as the day moves on. The piece is formally
elegant in its transition from the wall to the floor. Donna KuKama is presenting a video with a
extremely disruptive sound element, as we stands her hair is waving in the wind
against the background of a rock formation. The geologic site reminds us of the
ancient period of time, her dress is contemporary, and her hair waves over her
face, which brings to mind her identity as well as loss of identity. Her waving
hair signifies that she is a black woman, yet we do not know her as a person.
So she is presenting herself as a metaphor and an icon in the natural
environment. She looks cold, as the wind blows, and is steadfast in her
standing position. She confronts the viewers and we are to begin to understand
what she is trying to communicate to us mutely. KuKama is also performing live
for us today at the Center for Historical Reenactments. She is performing as a
bank teller selling certificates on gold paper, and asking for financial
exchange for something that would suggest a purchase on the future. The
question is also what are we purchasing? The vegetables are placed on the desk
and arranged in piles suggesting piles of money or currency. The idea of food
as luxury, or food as commodity is brought forward.

They suggest that currency can be as
simple as food, but also that food is so urgent for human beings. Donna’s voice
can only be heard by the person in line whose turn it is to engage her.
Therefore the audience is peaked by its interaction with her. Her manner is
calm and serious as she assumes this character with authenticity. Viewers are
deprived of hearing their exchange, and therefore are required to line up
themselves in order to truly know what the bank is all about. KuKama is also
right on time as she uses the platform of the bank in a moment when we all are
wondering particularly about the role of banks their abuses. Viewers take this
skeptical energy to donna as they react in parting with their currency.

The range of works in this exhibition
is wide. They deal with both the content of the issue of climate change, but
they locate in an African dialogue. Some of them have humor, and all have
certain formal qualities, and some react to the locale of a particular African
experience. The challenge of facing the end of a world as we knew it is so
absurd that we as viewers immediately look for the corners where we are
familiar, or the intimate places where we can find our purpose.

The title of Don’t Panic is taken from
Ruth Sacks, video. Sacks skywrote these words using an airplane into the sky.
She chose the day of human rights in South Africa to write these words. She
asks viewers to look up, and not panic about the ecological disaster, not panic
about the lack of human rights perhaps. In this she draws a line between the
conditions of human beings and the condition of the larger natural world. Sacks
today serves us a lunch, which is conceived of as a repaying her climate debt
of using an airplane and its fuel in the atmosphere. The lunch is lovingly
prepared by a cooking artisan, who thinks of food as her work, using local
cheeses, and meats, and African grilling traditions. The meal was like no other
I have had in Africa, it was fresh, delicious, authentic, abundant for us
viewers and eaters. The international area of food+art is current and
thoughtfully conceived. We are in fellowship together as participants, and the
generosity of spirit of this work is potently felt.

Gabi Ngcobo is purposefully providing a
constellation of works that articulate nodes of how to think about climate as
global disaster. The works confront what still exists at a time of disaster,
these may or may not be examples of natural beauty, these may or may not be
hints of disaster. The nodes do not illustrate the scope of the problem. The
art asks questions of viewers who must then question their own vantage points
and assumptions. Human beings wrestling with the indifference of nature have to
have thoughts and draw intellectual and emotional conclusions. Human beings can
then remind us of the biologic and geographic locations, as well as economic
and racial disparities, social dilemmas, and political problems etc. The
function of art is to stir this pot with potent thoughts and arguments, and
spur the viewers to connect dots and create projects of remedy. One critical
question perhaps is the one that asks in the saving of nature what hierarchies
are being created and by whom?

Art can perhaps suggest, yet not
exactly supply the action steps, but rather foment these to become urgent.

The identity or question of audience
then comes forward. Who is the audience for these works? In our hearts artists
hope that the scope is wide, often the audience is more rarified. Thus, the
forms of our work also migrates across
spaces such as both white cubes, black cubes, or mainstream locations like
public works, and particularly on line locations such as social networks, and
digital video networks such as You Tube etc. The life of a written publication
is also key to the works living beyond their physical confines, like the Don’t
Panic catalogue for example. This circles back to the Center For Historical
Reenactments and its commitment to providing a space to work on projects in the
context of post Apartheid society. This flexibility of this model addresses
post trauma in a sanctioned space. The existence of the first exhibition in the
public gallery of Durban is another foray in engaging the fallible government
entities as well. Don’t Panic succeeds
in both subject, and context, for art and the conversation it inspires.

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The Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism is an independent platform for critical social analysis based at the University of the Witwatersrand. It is intended for intellectual stimulation, exchange and sustained interaction around the work of noted scholars in the humanities and social sciences, and the emerging fields of critical legal and science studies.